


Felicity Smoak: Head Bitch in Charge

by CJ_fics



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Felicity Smoak is the Queen of Arrow, Humour with some angst, Team Arrow dynamics, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 10:55:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2848376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJ_fics/pseuds/CJ_fics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone knows that Felicity Smoak was in charge -- of Team Arrow, and of Oliver Queen. For those who didn't, well, Team Arrow makes sure to relieve them of their mistaken notion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Felicity Smoak: Head Bitch in Charge

It was an unspoken rule in the Arrow lair: Felicity was in-charge.  
  
Oh, for most people, at first, they think Oliver was in charge. He was the Arrow, after all. Their leader. The one who called the shots in the field. The bossiest boss in the known world. The one who can throw the most tempestuous tantrums and the get into the moodiest lows.  
  
But quite quickly, guests and newbies to the lair find out that how wrong they are about who is in charge.  
  
John Diggle has always known though.  
  
He knew from the first moment that Felicity entered the lair, and then promptly upgraded their systems as they waited for Oliver to recover from the gunshot wound his mother gave him. Diggle had tried to warn Felicity about touching the foundry computer system. But she just brushed him off with “Your archaic system hurts me deep down in my soul, Mr. Diggle! Let me do this, please.” So, she did. And Oliver didn’t even complain about it, or the fact that she had displaced some his arrows from their specific spots in their cases.  
  
At that point thought, Diggle thought it was just an anomaly. Oliver had been woozy from his most recent life-threatening experience, and traumatised that his bullet wound was care of his mother. He wasn’t his usual bossy self. So, he dismissed it.  
  
The next day though, Diggle had to re-think the situation.  
  
Felicity had just locked Oliver in to the lair because she thought that he shouldn’t arrow a ten-year old boy’s widower father. Oliver tried to intimidate Felicity, using his larger body to try to get her to cower. She didn’t. She was nervous, for sure. But that didn’t stop her from confronting an intimidating Oliver Queen in full Vigilante regalia, and when he didn’t agree with what she said, she quit. Just like that.  
  
The first thought in Diggle’s mind at that time was, _This girl’s got balls. I like her._  
  
The next day when Oliver told him that they were going to pay Felicity a visit so he can explain to her what happened the night before (that he didn’t arrow anyone’s father), Diggle assumed it was Oliver wanting to make sure that Felicity didn’t report him to the police. When Oliver explained that he never thought that Felicity (and Diggle) would ever go to the police and betray him, and then proceeded to gently explain, not only what had happened with their target the night before, but also why he behaved that way towards her, Diggle thought: _There’s a new boss in the lair. And it’s not Oliver Queen._  
  
And he was happy about it. Because he really, really liked this young woman with balls of steel.  
  
From then on, Diggle behaved, acted and thought of their Arrow business with the assumption that Felicity Smoak was in charge.  
  
So, when she came to him with plans about re-designing their headquarters, even though he wasn’t sure that Oliver would ever return to Starling City or even put on the hood again, he just nodded and asked, “How much lifting will I need to do?”.  
  
When a few weeks later, she knocks on his door and says, “It’s time to get him back home, don’t you think?”, all Diggle does is nod and say, “Let me find a pilot to take us to the island.”  
  
Because, even if Diggle was not sure about what Oliver’s next move was, Felicity was. She believed that Oliver was meant to be something more than an island castaway. Or a billionaire playboy. And in Diggle’s mind, what Felicity says, especially when it comes to Oliver Queen, goes.  
  
He’s never been proven wrong.  
  
And he’s since then taken smug pleasure in seeing when people who visit the lair realise who exactly was in charge.  
  
———————————————————-  
  
At first, Roy dismissed Felicity as the Arrow’s pretty tech support.

For a while there, he believed that the reason why Oliver treated the blonde with gentleness and care was because the two of them were in a romantic relationship. An off-hand comment to Diggle quickly proved his assumption wrong. Then finding out about Oliver and Sara’s relationship a few weeks later further disproved his initial assessment.  
  
So, he just assumed the reason for the special treatment that Felicity got from Oliver was due to the fact that she was a female — and Oliver Queen is known for being a sucker for the female species.  
  
It was on the night of his first Arrow-approved field mission that Roy realised that there was more than met the eye when it came to Felicity Smoak.  
  
Oliver, Sara, Diggle and him had been arguing about whether or not he was mission ready. More specifically, he was trying to convince his teammates that he indeed ready to be taken out into the field, even with Mirakuru in his veins. That he could control himself. That he would be an asset on the field.  
  
Oliver, Sara and Diggle had reservations. No, Sara and Diggle had reservations. Oliver completely and absolutely disagreed with Roy.  
  
After about thirty minutes of heated arguing, Felicity speaks up from her chair in front of her computers, “You should let him go out into the field. If he says he’s ready, then we should trust him, you know as his teammates, to be ready. You can’t keep him locked in here training all day, every day, and then not let him out. Besides, how can we know that he’s ready, if you don’t give him the chance to prove it?”  
  
That shuts everyone up.  
  
Oliver steps closer to Felicity and drops a gentle hand on her shoulder, “Are you sure?”  
  
Felicity nods in response.  
  
Oliver then nods to himself and then turns to Roy, “All right. Suit up. You’re going on a mission with Sara and me tonight. Diggle will be on hand for back-up.”  
  
Roy smiles excitedly, nodding his head, “You won’t regret it. You’ll see, I’ll do whatever you command me to do.”  
  
Before he reaches for his hoodie, Felicity calls out to him, “Roy, if your presence in the field endangers Oliver, Diggle and Sara — and yourself… I’m going to make you suffer. All right?” With that, she flashes him a smile and turns her attention back to her monitors.  
  
Roy Harper had never been so scared in his life.  
  
And that’s saying something. He spends his time training with a former-murdering vigilante, an ex-army guy and a League of Assassins member. He spends his free time with an intimidating Thea Queen, and an equally daunting Sin. He’s spent time with Moira Queen. He grew up in the Glades with druggies, thieves, pushers, pimps and all sorts of badasses in between. But in that moment, Roy feels a shiver down his spine at Felicity’s words.  
  
Diggle’s smiling, “You better believe her”, and Oliver’s approving smile, don’t help.  
  
From then on, even after he was fully inducted into Team Arrow, he would always find himself looking towards Felicity whenever the team debated something. Because he knew what she said, went.  
  
——————————————————-  
  
Sara always knew that Oliver had held Diggle and Felicity in high regard, and that he had learned to rely on their support and friendship to fulfill his mission. She also knew that they were his true partners. They weren’t employees to be dismissed, even though the three of them play-acted as if that was all they were. And she was happy about it. She was happy that Oliver had found people he could trust and rely on, and who would accept him in his totality. His dark and his light.  
  
She was happy to receive the same kind of support and friendship from Diggle and Felicity. Happy to be part of this team. Glad to have, even though by association, what Oliver had found for himself after his return to Starling City.  
  
Her experience in the League made her aware of hierarchies of power. In the League of Assassins, Ra’s Al Ghul was the head, the leader, the father, the commander, the boss. Nyssa and Talia were his lieutenants. As was David Cain. The rest of them were foot soldiers, valued for their allegiance and obedience to Ra’s Al Ghul, the first ones on the battle field, and the necessary sacrifice for the good of the League.  
  
When she first encountered Oliver’s team, she thought that Oliver was the team’s Ra’s Al Ghul with Diggle and Felicity as his most trusted lieutenants. It was a flatter configuration. Everyone had their roles and their skill sets and their contributions. There were not foot soldiers in Oliver’s team, but there was one leader — and that was Oliver.  
  
The second time she returned to Starling City and joins the team, she thought the configuration would change. That Oliver, the Arrow, would be the head with her as his second-in-command, and Diggle, Felicity and Roy as their back-up. Still not foot soldiers, still valued for their contributions, but lower on the totem pole. Sara didn’t bother feeling bad about those thoughts, because that was just the way it was. Oliver and her were the most skilled when it came to what needed to be done to save Starling City, so naturally, they were at the top tier of the team hierarchy.  
  
A statement from John Diggle as they were cleaning up after stitching Felicity’s bullet wound was the first seed of doubt in her mind about what she believed to be true: “The worst thing you can do in your time in this team, Sara, is to underestimate Felicity Smoak. Yes, she’s cute. But that’s not all she is. That girl has a spine stronger than any of the members of the League of Assassins. That girl has a courage more unrelenting than Oliver’s. Or yours. Or mine.”  
  
Sara took that as a warning from John to not dismiss and hurt Felicity. She knew that Felicity was feeling a bit insecure about her presence on the team and her relationship with Oliver. She knew the other woman had unresolved feelings for Oliver. So, she took John’s words to not further hurt the other woman. And since Sara had too many things to atone for already, she didn’t want to add Felicity’s pain to her list. Besides, she really admired the other woman for sustaining hope and light and positivity, even with their crusade. So, she treated Felicity with respect and care. She sought to protect the other woman as she had seen Oliver and Diggle do.  
  
When Felicity convinced Oliver to take Roy out on the field, Sara shrugged it off. Felicity was making logical sense, so why wouldn’t the team listen to her. Felicity was admittedly the most intelligent one in the team, after all.  
  
But on the night of Thea’s kidnapping, Sara had to re-assess what exactly Felicity’s role in the team was.  
  
They were all fighting about what to do. Roy had left with harsh words against Oliver for not doing anything. Oliver was at his most desperate. Thea, the person he loved the most, was in the hands of his greatest enemy, Slade Wilson. Oliver was paralysed with panic and worry. He wanted to go after Slade and rescue Thea, but she and Diggle were trying to make him see reason.  
  
Felicity was the only one who wasn’t yelling. She wasn’t even speaking. And then she does. “Go,” she had said, stopping everyone else’s loud voices. She steps closer to Oliver and speaks to him in a voice so low that Sara could only hear snippets of what she was saying, “Get Thea … Stop Slade End this… Do whatever it takes…”. At the end of what Felicity had told Oliver, he looks at her for a minute or so and then does as she had commanded. He went because she gave permission him to go.  
  
Sara’s thoughts in that moment were conflicted. She was surprised that Felicity had made such an illogical statement. _Of course, it was a trap! Of course, Slade was forever one step ahead of them_. She was surprised at Oliver’s reaction. It’s as if there was no other voice that he could hear, no other argument. The pettiest part of Sara, the one she tries so hard to bury under her atonement, feels slighted at the effect Felicity had on Oliver. Feels slightly jealous that this woman could command her boyfriend in a way Sara never could. Because in that moment, Felicity Smoak owned Oliver Queen.  
  
A separate part of her mind recalled other scenes between Oliver and Felicity. Scenes where Felicity would take a piss out of Oliver, and he would allow it with a sheepish smile. Moments when Oliver would pull away from Sara because he heard Felicity’s footsteps going to down the lair steps. The morning after the first night she and Oliver spent together again, and Oliver furiously and anxiously cleaning up the mats where they spent the night in each other’s arms, murmuring “Dammit. This is hers. Her space. Her space. Dammit, Queen… Not here…”. Oliver assuring a high out of her ass Felicity that she would always be his girl, not seeming to care that his girlfriend was in hearing distance.  
  
Then more recollections. This time not of Oliver. But with John and Roy. How there was an unspoken agreement in the lair that dinner whatever it was Felicity was feeling like eating that night. How the guys warned each other about taking care of the techs on out in the field, and how they would jokingly rehearse how they would explain any broken pieces of tech before they made it back to the lair. How John would always greet Felicity with a hug or a brotherly peck on the cheek upon entering the lair. Or how Roy would always greet Felicity first. How Roy would never ever turn his Mirakuru rage on Felicity, even when he was out of control.  
  
Sara smiled then. Her initial assessment of the team’s power hierarchy was wrong. So wrong. There was one person in charge, of Oliver and of the team, and that was Felicity Smoak.  
  
When Sara returned with the Nyssa and the League of Assassins to help Oliver and the team defeat Slade, she wasn’t surprised to see Felicity meet them near the bottom of the stairs with an arrow leaning against her shoulder, asking her why she thought it was a good idea to bring seven assassins down to the lair. She wasn’t surprised that Oliver allowed it. After all, Felicity was the one in charge. The lair was hers. The team was hers. So was Oliver, though he didn’t know that yet.  
  
What surprised her though was when Nyssa introduced herself to Felicity formally, paying proper respect to the other woman. As if Nyssa knew instinctively who was in control of the space.  
  
Sara shakes her head. She shouldn’t have been surprised. Nyssa grew up in the tutelage of Ra’s Al Ghul, she was trained from a young age to recognise power when she encountered it.  
  
—————————————————————————-  
  
Quentin had lived a life surrounded by strong women. He took pride in the fact that he married a woman who was stronger, smarter and more successful than he was, and that they raised two strong, intelligent, stubborn daughters. He wouldn’t have it any other way.  
  
But he’s never quite met a strong woman like Felicity Smoak. Granted, he’s never met a woman who was willingly working for a vigilante before. And the Hood was Starling City’s first vigilante.  
  
The first time he met her, he thought he could intimidate her with his gruff and aggressive attitude into admitting that she was working for the vigilante. Not only did she disarm him with her nervous babbling, she turned the tables around on him by defending the vigilante and calling him a ‘hero’. While he admired her guts, he also dismissed her as vigilante fan-girl.  
  
Then when the Hood called him that night again, he just knew that that girl had something to do with it. When the Hood asked him to go to to where they suspected the earthquake device was, and Felicity was there in his ears guiding him into finding and dismantling the device, he knew that she was more than a vigilante fan-girl. She was a partner. She wasn’t some doe-eyed, impressionable young woman, hero-worshipping the vigilante. No, she was in this whole vigilante crusade as much as the Hood was.  
  
When she gave him a way to contact the Hood, he had asked her, “Are you sure, Ms. Smoak? Will the vigilante not be angry that you gave me a direct hotline to him?”  
  
She responded with a snort and rolled eyes, “Oh, he’s not going to complain, Detective.”  
  
When all the vigilante had to say about the matter was, “I see Ms. Smoak had given you a way to contact me”, Quentin shook his head and entertained the thought that the Arrow and Ms. Smoak were married. Then quickly dismissed it. For his own sanity.  
  
His interactions with Ms. Smoak only further proved to him that she was a uniquely strong woman, not just because of her own qualities and abilities but also in the way that she seems to be in charge of the Arrow’s operations. When he complained to the Arrow about using young girls as serial killer bait for the Dollmaker, and the Arrow responded with a resigned, “She volunteered”, he knew that the Arrow, as skilled and as intimidating as he was, was no challenge for Felicity Smoak’s will. _And the Arrow knew it_ , Quentin believed.  
  
When Slade Wilson’s super-powered goons kidnapped Laurel, he surprised himself by calling Ms. Smoak first. He already had a direct line to the Arrow. But yet, in his panic, he called her first. To ask for permission to see the Arrow. Because he knew, instinctively, that if she allowed him access to the Arrow, the vigilante would hear him out. Because, even though the Arrow and Sara and her League of Assassins were the ones in-charge of stopping Slade Wilson and his goons, and rescuing Laurel, Felicity Smoak was in charge of the Arrow.  
  
And he was proven right. With one word from her about where Slade’s goons were converging, the Arrow, Sara and her League fall into action, ignoring his pleas to save Laurel with “The city comes first.”  
  
Once the Arrow defeated Slade Wilson, and Laurel was rescued, he asked Sara about Ms. Smoak.  
  
"She did the bravest thing tonight, dad," Sara said, "She allowed herself to be captured so that she can inject Slade with the cure. The Arrow couldn’t have defeated him, and saved the city, without her."  
  
Once he recovered from the shock of the role Ms. Smoak played that night, he asked, “And where is she now?”  
  
"She’s with the Arrow and his team. They’re on their way to put Slade in his prison. It’s in an undisclosed location," Sara responded.  
  
"I’m glad the Arrow didn’t kill Slade. I owe him an apology for trying to convince him to becoming a killer again," Quentin admitted.  
  
"You, me and everyone else. All of us tried to get him to be a killer again," Sara said sadly, "But thankfully, Felicity didn’t support that idea."  
  
Quentin chuckled, “Hers is the only voice he hears, isn’t it.”  
  
Sara nodded with a smile, “Yep!”  
  
"It’s scary how much power that tiny woman has," Quentin shook his head before getting into his car to drive Sara to docks.  
  
  
—————————————————————————-  
  
Laurel never thought much of Felicity Smoak.  
  
She unjustly dismissed Felicity as nothing more than an Ollie Queen groupie, the first time she meets the blonde woman. When she found out that Oliver had made her into his Executive Assistant, Laurel shook her head at Ollie Queen’s predictability. _First taste of a position of power, and what does he do? Hire secretary who served to stroke his ego and maybe sleep with him._  
  
Even when she found out that Ollie was the Arrow, she didn’t realise that Felicity was part of that aspect of his life. She discovered that Felicity and Ollie’s bodyguard and driver, John Diggle, were in Ollie’s Arrow business when she figured out the best possible location of the Arrow’s headquarters was Verdant, and headed towards the club.  
  
The scene in the parking lot was strange. John Diggle was carrying an unconscious Ollie over his shoulder as Felicity Smoak watched Ollie’s head and instructed the black man.  
  
"What’s going on in here? What’s wrong with Ollie?" Laurel demanded, "Is he OK?"  
  
"Yeah, he’s fine," Felicity responded, "He’ll be awake in about thirty minutes."  
  
"What happened to him?" Laurel asked.  
  
Felicity and Mr. Diggle looked at each other sideways, as if having a silent conversation. Before they can make any excuses, Laurel said, “I know he’s the Arrow.”  
  
"Oh, thank god!" Felicity said, "I was wondering when you were going to figure it out. I mean, it was so obvious!"  
  
Laurel ignored the unintended insult to her intelligences and prodded, “So, what happened to him?”  
  
"Digg shot a tranq-dart on Oliver," Felicity explained.  
  
Mr. Diggle snorted and said, “It was Felicity’s idea.”  
  
"Yes, but we didn’t have a choice! He was going to give himself to Slade. And that’s not allowed!" Felicity ranted, "The city needs him so we cannot afford for Oliver to go on some self-sacrificing, suicide mission."  
  
"All right, all right," Mr. Diggle conceded, shaking his head at the blonde, "Are we going in? Or should I put Oliver down? He is really heavy."  
  
"I know! It’s all muscle," Felicity agreed, then stopped herself, "I had to catch him the other day before he fell off the stairs in the lair. His knee is really busted."  
  
"I’d like to talk to Ollie when he wakes up," Laurel interrupted, "I have some news."  
  
Mr. Diggle looks at Felicity for confirmation, who then said, “What news?”  
  
"I’d rather tell Ollie himself," Laurel insisted.  
  
"Well, you don’t get in without Felicity’s approval, so I suggest you tell her what your news is," Mr. Diggle responded, brows furrowed.  
  
"Alderman Blood knew that Moira Queen was going to get killed," Laurel said, not willing to get into a debate with Ollie’s … team.  
  
"Hmm. So he’s working with Slade Wilson," Felicity concluded, "All right, Oliver needs to hear that from you. That might get him to give up this suicide schtick he’s got going at the moment."  
  
With that, Laurel was allowed entry into the lair.  
  
In the events that followed after that moment, Laurel had become too busy dealing with other things to give further thought to Felicity Smoak. Her dad was in the hospital after an emergency surgery to deal with his internal injuries. Her sister was off who-knows-where, leading the life of an assassin. The city had needed a lot of rehabilitation, and her job in the DA’s office put in one of the best spots to help with those efforts.  
  
She had also begun working with Ollie as the Arrow. As assistant DA, she had files upon files of criminals who had escaped the long arm of the law, and who had not been brought to justice, due to Starling City’s corruption. She had been sharing information about the criminals to Ollie for him to catch so she could prosecute them.  
  
The “You catch ‘em, I cook ‘em” system she had going with Ollie worked like a well-oiled machine. They were partners in saving their city.  
  
Until she prodded.  
  
"How do you decide which one to go for first?" she asks Ollie as he walks with her to entrance of Verdant. She was dropping off new folders on criminals for him to catch.  
  
"Felicity reviews the folders you send, does some research on the perps, and then lets the team know which one to catch first," Oliver responds a-matter-of-factly.  
  
"Felicity?" Laurel confirms, her eyebrows furrowed.  
  
"Yeah, Felicity. She’s really good at what she does," Oliver smiles.  
  
"Isn’t she your tech support? I mean, she’s just—"  
  
"Laurel, if I were you, I’d watch what I say next," Oliver growls, smile gone and frowning.  
  
"Wha—" Laurel stammers, confused.  
  
"Felicity has never been _just_ my ‘technical support’. Felicity has never _just_ been my ‘secretary’ — EA, whatever is the correct term. She’s always been much more than _that_ ,” Oliver says with authority.  
  
"I’m sorry. I didn’t know," Laurel murmurs.  
  
"Well, now you do," Oliver responds abruptly, "Do you have the folders with you? I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to go to the basement right now."  
  
"I — uh — here—" Laurel stutters, pulling up her briefcase, trying to open it one-handed to reach for the files.  
  
The door to Verdant opens and out comes Felicity and Roy. They’re talking animatedly and laughing.  
  
"Oh, hey," Felicity stops as she sees Oliver and Laurel.  
  
"Hey," Oliver greets as he steps closer to her. Laurel nods her head in greeting, still slightly embarrassed by Oliver’s reprimand.  
  
"Roy got the short end of the stick for the Belly Burger run, and he needs to use my car. And you know the lock sticks and these magic fingers are the only ones that can open it," Felicity explains, wiggling her fingers in front of her face. Then she realises what she said (Oliver and Roy laughing clued her in), "I mean, not magic fingers, magic fingers. You know what I mean!"  
  
"Laurel was just dropping off some files," Oliver says, motioning to Laurel as he stands close to Felicity.  
  
"Great! What kind of burger do you want?" Felicity smiles.  
  
"What?" Laurel asked.  
  
"You’re staying for dinner, right?" Felicity confirms, looking a bit confused.  
  
"Ah, no," Laurel says at the same time Oliver responds, "Laurel was just leaving."  
  
"Nonsense," Felicity answers, shaking her head, "It’s dinner time and it will take Roy like fifteen minutes to pick up the burgers. We’ve already called ahead, I’m sure an extra order won’t take that long to prepare."  
  
"No, really, Felicity," Laurel says.  
  
"I insist," Felicity smiles.  
  
"Lady, if Blondie insists, you should stay for dinner," Roy chimes in, "Your life would be better that way. Trust me."  
  
Laurel looks to Oliver for confirmation to find that he’s looking at Felicity with his head tilted sideways and with a small smile on his lips. At Felicity’s nod, Oliver addresses Laurel, “Stay for dinner then.”  
  
As Laurel heads down the basement with Oliver behind her and Felicity behind him, she realises that she has sorely underestimated Felicity Smoak.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a 'Thank you' fic for reaching 555 followers on Tumblr.
> 
> Original post: http://outoftheclosetshipper.tumblr.com/post/97663085033/felicity-smoak-head-bitch-in-charge-thank-you


End file.
